


[Fandom stats] Sherlockian holiday fanwork exchanges

by toastystats (destinationtoast)



Series: Fandom Stats [16]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Christmas, Community: holmestice, Community: sherlockmas, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Holidays, Meta, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-27
Updated: 2013-11-27
Packaged: 2019-09-20 00:11:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17011803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/destinationtoast/pseuds/toastystats
Summary: A look at popular Sherlockian gift exchanges, and what kinds of fanworks are most common in the AO3 community for each (as of Nov 2013).





	[Fandom stats] Sherlockian holiday fanwork exchanges

**Author's Note:**

> Originally [posted on Tumblr](http://destinationtoast.tumblr.com/post/68303356333/fandom-stats-sherlockian-holiday-fanworks-edition). Sorry for the old low-resolution images.
> 
> Please note that a lot of the fanworks produced for these gift exchanges may not end up cross-posted to AO3, so I also encourage you to follow the links to the communities for a more complete set of fanworks, and to take these stats with a big grain of salt.

In partnership with the Three Patch Podcast, I did a holiday-themed stats analysis of Sherlockian fanworks on AO3.  I looked at the statistical characteristics of both fanfic written about the holidays and fanfic written for a holiday gift exchange.  This is not a comprehensive analysis of either category, but brings to light a few fun facts. 

**TL;DR: HIGHLIGHTS**

  * **For those who love fluff-tastic Christmas fic:** Sherlockian fanfic tagged "[Christmas](http://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Christmas&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&tag_id=Sherlock+Holmes+*a*+Related+Fandoms)" is over three times as likely to use the “Fluff” tag as the fandom is overall. The “Angst” tag, however, is just as common as usual.

  * **For those who love Gen fic:** The [Sherlockmas](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Sherlockmas) holiday gift exchange collection has less slash and more Gen fic the fandom at large.  

  * **For those who love all versions of Sherlock Holmes:** The [Holmestice](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Holmestice) holiday gift exchange collection is a great place to find a variety of different versions of Sherlock Holmes -- especially ACD canon stories -- though BBC still predominates.  

  * **For those who love case fic or AUs:** Holmestice also features more AU fic and case fic than average.

  * **For those who like a nice, long tale:** Both Sherlockmas and Holmestice feature fanfic that is, on average, longer than most Sherlock fanfic.




More details beyond the cut -- as well as any updates and corrections.

Also, I'm trying a new layout with the graphs inline -- let me know what you think!

**METHODOLOGY**

I statistically compared 4 groups of AO3 fanworks:

  * **SH:** Works using the tag "Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms" (44689 works)

  * **BBC:** Works using the tag "Sherlock (TV)" (40795 works)

  * **Christmas: "** Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms" works that also use the [“Christmas” tag](http://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Christmas&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&tag_id=Sherlock+Holmes+*a*+Related+Fandoms) (485 works)

  * **Holmestice:**[Holmestice Fanworks Exchange](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Holmestice) collection (172 works) -- a gift exchange with fanworks based on all adaptations of Sherlock Holmes. ( **Edit:** Please note that the [Holmestice LJ community](http://holmestice.livejournal.com/) -- the main home of Holmestice -- has lots more fanworks that don't get archived on AO3; this is just a look at the AO3 works!)

  * **Sherlockmas:**[Sherlockmas Fanworks Community](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Sherlockmas) collection (150 works) -- a gift exchange focused on BBC Sherlock.  ( **Edit:** Like Holmestice, the [Sherlockmas LJ communit](http://sherlockmas.livejournal.com/)[y](http://sherlockmas.livejournal.com/) likely has lots more fanworks that don't get archived on AO3; this is just a look at the AO3 works!)




Because the BBC and SH categories turned out to be nearly identical in every analysis, I have omitted BBC from the graphs.

I also searched for other holiday tags besides "Christmas" (e.g., "Hanukkah", "holidays", "solstice"), but found that the other tags either contained very few works, or contained many irrelevant works. I chose to use "Christmas" not as a comprehensive holiday tag, but because it represented a set of fanworks that I was fairly certain were about the winter holiday season.

I asked readers for recommendations of Sherlockian holiday gift exchanges, and Sherlockmas and Holmestice were the two that readers responded with. I bet there are others out there, too; we are a large and creative fandom! :)

When searching for non-Johnlock fic in each category, I filtered out fanfic containing that pairing with the following AO3 search filter: "-filter_ids:11006".

**RESULTS AND DISCUSSION**

I basically tossed every analysis I've ever done at these categories and saw what stuck. :) Please note that the holiday collections (and even the "Christmas" tag, to a lesser extent) are very small, and many of the smaller differences I find here can't be taken as being reliable. But the really big differences give us some ideas of the interesting characteristics of each of these categories.

**Relationships.**

The Sherlockmas holiday collection is a great place to find Gen fic:

[](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipPICY-ShirGNCVKHDweCoghFcis5jWjaNA2xgoM?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

And while you'll still find plenty of Johnlock fic if that's what you're after, Sherlockmas is less Johnlock-centric than most categories:

[](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipPLFlW3Poe-PfcDl-p9tJAZKwd9rYjvP3ebxreP?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

Holmestice and Sherlockmas are both good places to look for rarer pairs; both contain pairings involving Lestrade, Mycroft, Irene, Molly, Sarah Sawyer, and others.

**Ratings.**

The "Christmas" tag and the Sherlockmas collection are both good sources of works rated for General Audiences.  Both holiday collections have a lot of Teen-rated works. 

[](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipNkk93wx0E4j1SnURjf66bw-Z3zLAwSPGSDFWys?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

**Fandoms.**

The Holmestice collection, by design, features a lot of fic with alternate versions of Sherlock Holmes besides BBC.  I looked at the diversity of adaptations within the collection.  I compared it to the entire "Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms" tag:

[]()

Most of the difference is that there's a lot more ACD canon fic in Holmestice, proportionately, than in the Sherlock Holmes fandom at large.  However, there were also a number of other adaptations that make up at least 1% of the Holmestice collection:

  * Sherlock Holmes (Downey films) 
  * Elementary (TV)
  * Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV) [Granada Holmes]
  * Mary Russell - Laurie R. King
  * A Study in Emerald - Neil Gaiman



Many of these make up substantially less of the Sherlock Holmes fandom more generally -- the last two account for less than  0.1% apiece of Sherlock Holmes-related fanworks.

Keep in mind, however, that you only need 2 works within Holmestice to be more than 1% of that collection -- so there still aren't many fanworks for some of these fandoms.  But in general, Holmestice is a good place to look for more diverse adaptations!  You can even find one Great Mouse Detective fic there.  :)

**Additional tags.**

I only looked at a few tags here, generated via my own brainstorming and looking at the tags on a bunch of Holmestice and Sherlockmas stories:

[](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipOh_e8pCCW7lhWXSNnFF6LumtEYlc7d8vTlF1qF?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

  * There’s a LOT of fluff in stories tagged “Christmas” (about three times as much as average for the fandom), but no less angst than usual.

  * The Holmestice collection has more AU fic and more case fic than usual.




**Word count and popularity.**

The holiday gift exchange fics are substantially longer, on average, than most fic in the rest of the fandom, with Holmestice having a median length that's over twice the average for the fandom.  

[ ](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipOuxot_yMSPf0MVZxkT6xmoayIXUTx5qVJAe6Mv?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

Number of hits, as I've discussed before are partly related to word count, but also to other factors.  Holmestice is a community that seems to get a lot of attention, relatively -- and deservedly so, from what I've seen!  Sherlockmas is a bit of a lesser-known treasure, relatively, with a hit rate closer that's about to average for the fandom.

[ ](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipNGxeCMjKGgAblmBApdPifL40RK1lEqZ3xmImyV?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

**CONCLUSIONS**

There is great holiday fanfic out there to suit your every Sherlockian desire!  Check out the wonderful work of the people who have contributed to [Holmestice](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Holmestice) and [Sherlockmas](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Sherlockmas), and, if you like, take a look at the [Top 20 Sherlockian Winter Holiday Fic](http://destinationtoast.tumblr.com/post/66622054141/20-great-sherlockian-winter-holiday-fics-i-know) list I compiled.  

**Author's Note:**

> Comments welcome, but I’m in the middle of a massive fandom stats backup due to Tumblr purge, so I may be slow to respond.


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